KEEP GOING

Ever feel your labour for the LORD is in vain? Or tempted to look around at the gifts and ministry of others and see yours as insignificant or pointless by comparison?

If so, then you’re not alone. These verses from Haggai 2 tells us of a people similarly discouraged in their service for the LORD, struggling to rebuild His temple, seeing their work as irrelevant and filled with doubt as to whether God was even with them in their endeavours.

And it is in their despair that the LORD calls them to be strong, to work, to not be afraid, because He is with them, His Spirit in their midst. And encourages their hearts in their service for Him with a renewed vision of the great work He has called them to do, and of Him the sovereign God who rules over all things and brings what He wills to pass.

And of course, we see the greater fulfilment of these promises in the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the true temple, and those who are now in Him - the Church, the temple of the living God, living stones being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

And so, in our weariness the LORD calls us to be strong, to work, to not be afraid. That no labour for Him is ever in vain, however insignificant, or impossible it may seem to us to be, for He is with us in it all, indwelling and empowering us by the Spirit to live and work for Him, and who will one day complete the work He has begun in us, to the praise of His glory and grace. Oh, what a day!!